


Diversion Tactics

by Duster6789



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21777697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duster6789/pseuds/Duster6789
Summary: Theon and Sansa have been dating for a few months and he doesn’t feel ready to tell the Starks yet.So he decides the best thing to do is to divert any attention away from his own relationship and try to match together two of his friends.
Relationships: Arya Stark & Gendry Waters, Arya Stark/Gendry Waters, Theon Greyjoy & Sansa Stark, Theon Greyjoy/Sansa Stark
Comments: 8
Kudos: 104





	Diversion Tactics

Theon entered the Starks house for their annual Christmas Eve party and took in the sight of their efforts. In the hallway alone, there was garland surrounding all of the doorways to adjacent rooms and running up the bannister, fairy lights and a canopy were hanging from the ceiling and a grand Christmas tree stood tall and proud against the back wall. The Starks were the most perfect family he had ever known. They loved each other unconditionally and practically took him in during his high school years.

The Greyjoy residence was pretty much exactly the opposite. His father got his needs met by making other people miserable and had played Theon against his sister for years. A child shouldn’t have to understand manipulation but he wished that he had known about it sooner. Maybe he and his sister might have been friends if they had known that it was their father that was the arsehole in their home and not each other.

He must have been standing there for 30 seconds, taking in the feel of a happy home, when Sansa walked over to him. She was stunning. Her hair was tousled and flowing and her dress was a glittery deep red bodycon which made her figure look incredible. She always dressed to the season and she looked like Christmas personified.

She planted a quick kiss on his lips which made him jump. “You know tonight would be a lot more fun if you would just let me tell my family that we’re dating.”

“I don’t want to make a scene at a nice event and your Mum hates me,” Theon told her straight.

“She doesn’t hate you... I mean, Bran is the one who you stole lunch money from and he doesn’t care so Mum just needs to get on with it.”

“She holds a grudge.”

“She dislikes everyone equally. She doesn’t discriminate. She doesn’t have a grudge against you. I think you don’t want to tell people because you are ashamed of me,” she was moving closer to him as she spoke so he knew that she wasn’t really upset with him. He responded with the kiss that she was fishing for.

“We will tell people as soon as all of the family celebrations are finished, ok?”

“Ok, come with me. Everyone is through here,” he followed her obediently.

They entered the main sitting room, which was dark but for disco lights. Music was playing but it was still quite tame in the room. The parents were all sitting in the smaller sitting room. Theon assumed that this room was planned for dancing but things hadn’t picked up to that point yet.

Gendry and Arya were sitting the closest to the door and so Theon joined them while Sansa went to talk with her brother Bran. Gendry was wearing a blue plaid shirt that was too tight for his muscly arms and Arya wore a blue plaid boob tube dress with a white fitted shirt on underneath so that only the shoulders and collar showed. Almost matching. They both stopped talking and looked slightly annoyed that Theon was there. The two had a friendship that Theon had never really understood. Gendry was a teenager from Kings Landing when they met in a music summer camp one year. Arya was only eleven at the time but had confidence beyond her years. She befriended the drummer and found out that he hated his foster carers and was there at the summer school to escape them and that was all the information that Little Arya Stark needed. Next thing she was asking Daddy to rescue him from a neglectful home and he was living up North instead with the Seaworth family. Gendry became best friends with Jon at school, and so he was always at Stark events with Jon, but he and Arya always had this bond that nobody would break.

“Hey guys,” Theon tried to be friendly. “How are things?”

“Great thanks, it’s good to see you, it’s been a while,” Gendry offered with a smile that looked almost forced.

“It has yeah...” Theon really tried to make conversation for about ten minutes after that, but all of his ideas would prompt Arya or Gendry to talk about some shared memory of their own. If Theon did manage to get a word in, one of them would respond, and then the other would tease them for their response, and what Theon had said was completely forgotten. It made him feel very excluded. Until he realised something... Gendry and Arya were in love with one another.

This could work in his favour.

He excused himself and found Sansa, “so I’m here worrying about your brothers finding it weird that I’m dating their sister... and Gendry Waters is sitting over there - Jon’s best friend, might I add - and he’s completely besotted with Arya!”

“Theon, don’t be ridiculous. They have this bond. They have been friends since-“ she broke off as she watched her sister play punch Gendry in the shoulder and him feign being hurt. Arya got up and walked over to Jon, Gendry sat smiling to himself while peeling the label from his beer bottle and Arya looked over her shoulder at him and smiled the same coy smile. “Oh my God, they’re in love! Do you think they know?”

“I think we should try to find out. We could set them up!”

“Why would you want to meddle in their love life?”

“Because your parents love him and we can use him to test the waters. Ha! Waters! Unintentional pun.” Sansa glared at him. “What I mean is, if we can deflect the attention onto their romance, then we can see how that goes down, which will pave the way for us to tell everyone about us.”

“Diversion tactics? Hmm. I don’t know, you’re not very good at scheming... but if there’s a chance Arya could be happy and you’ll become more confident about telling people about us, then I am in. I’ll take Arya, you take Gendry.”

—————

“You look super pretty tonight, Arya! I love this outfit,” Sansa knew it was risky to compliment her sister’s looks because it made her really suspicious. Arya had absolutely no self confidence when it came to her appearance. Arya was effortlessly beautiful, which was good because she made absolutely no effort, she just always looked... good!

Sansa had already put in some time before jumping into the compliments though. They were three drinks in now, they had danced until Sansa said she felt too hot and led Arya to sit with her outside at the picnic bench. She had thought that Arya might be less suspicious if she thought that Sansa was just a bit more affectionate due to alcohol.

“Aww Sansa, I’m glad you like the outfit because I stole it from your wardrobe earlier.”

“Well, it looks better on you,” Sansa thought that it really did. Arya could pull off the quirky look in a way that Sansa couldn’t really.

“Everyone knows that you’re the pretty one Sansa.”

“That’s a silly phrase isn’t it, why can’t we both be pretty? Why does there have to be a pretty ONE. Do you have a boyfriend these days?”

“Of course I don’t,” Arya rolled her eyes.

“Is that because of your crush on Gendry?”

“Sansa! He’s my friend! He’s Jon’s best friend. He definitely doesn’t see me like that,” interesting that she didn’t deny the crush on her part.

“Oh Arya, I wouldn’t be so sure if I were you. Ok, I’m ready to go back inside. I have cooled off,” Sansa stood and opened the back door, walking away from her sister. All she had to do was plant a seed, being too insistent would never work on Arya.

—————

“When did Arya get so hot?” Theon asked Gendry as they watched the sisters dance. Gendry was a quick-to-anger sort of guy and Theon thought that playing on his jealousy might be the quickest way to evoke emotion from him. When he noticed Gendry clench his fist and shift his weight, Theon knew that he was right.

Sansa started to fan herself with her hand and indicated to Arya that she wanted to go outside. Without them there to watch anymore, he figured that a conversation was likely to happen. He watched Arya leave the room, trying to look awestruck, for good measure. He turned to see Gendry’s jaw tense.

“She didn’t used to look like that, did she?” Theon asked, trying to get a response out of Gendry.

“You’re at a family party, you’re not supposed to be checking out Robb’s sister. Isn’t he your best mate?”

“I’m simply appreciating something that I had never noticed before. I’m not going to go make out with her. I know you guys are close but there’s no need to be so angry,” Gendry tensed his arm and clenched his fist harder. His grip around his beer bottle was so hard that Theon thought he might witness a man crush glass with his bare hands. “Gendry? You’ve already noticed her, haven’t you?”

The rage fell from his expression and a flush started in his cheeks before spreading all across his face and neck. The man was blushing like a maid! “We’re just friends. It’s not like that!” A little too defensive.

“Are you sure?” Theon asked, as Sansa and Arya walked back into the room.

—————

“We are so in sync, I can’t believe we both went with Arya being pretty and they shouldn’t be so sure that they are just friends!” Sansa said excitedly. “We didn’t even plan a thing!”

“Shhh you’re louder than you think!”

“It’s just, I love my sister, it would be so lovely if I got her with a hottie like Gendry for a Christmas present,” she tried to whisper.

Theon laughed, “ok, you’re also much drunker than you think!”

“Yeah, I think it was the fresh air. It just hit me when I went outside.”

“It’s more likely that it was the alcohol than the fresh air. You’re so cute, I want to kiss you but I can’t.” She wrinkled her nose at him in response and he laughed. “Ok, let’s switch. I’m going to get Arya drunk. You just try not to give the game away, ok?”

She nodded. He nodded. They went to find their victims.

—————

“No! Five sambucas is my- it’s the limit!” Arya hiccuped and slurred. Theon had to admit, he was having a lot of fun with this part of the plan, Arya was funny to get drunk with.

“Theon? We’ve known each other forever, right? But you’re not my brother. Am I pretty? Sansa is the pretty ONE but am I even slightly pretty?”

“Of course you are. I was just talking about that with Gendry actually.”

“Was it you or was it Gen- Gendry... who said I was pretty?” He thought her question was interesting! And her hiccups were funny.

“Does it matter? Ohhh I love this song! Best Christmas song there is!”

“I hate The Pogues,” Arya protested.

“You say that now, but once you’re singing and swaying along, you’ll love it! Come on!”

—————

Sansa was hugging Gendry. He protested at first but then he seemed to find it funny.

“Why don’t we talk more, Gendry? You’re my brother’s best friend and kind of my sister’s best friend too so I feel like we should know each other better, you know? We should be friends. What do you like?”

“I don’t really know, on the spot, I don’t know what I like.”

“What do you talk about with Arya?” She broke the hug to look into his face. Desperately hoping that she wasn’t giving the game away with her facial expression.

“I don’t really know,” he was smiling as he spoke, “she just sort of comes up with a topic, and then we make fun of each other, until we’re not talking about what we started talking about anymore. We always run off on tangents.”

“Like your own secret language? That’s cute. It’s nice when people are in sync with each other,” she thought about Theon but, even in her semi drunk state, she knew that she couldn’t talk about him. “Ok, we’ll just have to find our own things to talk about in time. I doubt we’ll ever be as close as you and Arya.”

The Pogues started to play and Jon turned up the music. Theon started getting excited and shouting something to Arya. Must be time to dance!

—————

Sansa went for a lie down and Theon sought out Gendry again. He was outside at the picnic table, alone, peeling the label from his beer bottle again. As the alcohol had set in, Theon had started to feel guilty about experimenting with his friends.

“Gendry, I’m sorry about before, man. I’m going to be straight with you. Arya has grown up into a pretty little thing but I don’t really think she’s hot. She’s not my type. I only said that because I saw how you were together and I wanted to see if there was something in it. If you were into her. Which, by the way, you totally are!”

“Theon, shhhh! Look, ok, yes, I really am into her, as you put it. The thing is, I can’t just go for it. I could potentially ruin two friendships. My closest ones! And definitely not for the first time on a drunk night like this!” Gendry blurted out. Theon’s eyes widened to try to indicate to Gendry that Arya was approaching behind him. He didn’t pick up on the signals though, “I think I might love her. What do I do about that?”

“Love who?” Arya asked and Gendry spun around to meet her eyes. Theon wanted to run away, this was not something he should be there to witness, but the two of them were so easily spooked that he worried that any sudden movements would stop them before their important conversation even started.

“Um, you?” Gendry said. Theon rolled his eyes, his policy was that confidence was attractive, but Gendry’s humble approach seemed to be working on Arya.

“Ok, just checking that you weren’t talking about Sansa,” she said. Matter-of-factly. Suddenly Theon was witnessing their first kiss. As it heated up, he thought it would be safe to slip away. When he reached the door he noticed Jon looking shocked through the window.

Theon opened the door and said, “I know, right? Who would have seen that coming?”

“Actually, I was shocked that he finally acted on it. He asked me months ago if it would be weird for me if he asked her out, I said it was fine because... well, you’ve seen how they are with each other... they have that weird-“

“Bond, yeah,” Theon finished his sentence.

“Yeah exactly. Now we just need you and Sansa to admit that you’re together and we’re all set.”

“What?!” Theon blurted out.

“Bran knows everything. He literally saw you together on your first date. He came home and told us all how happy you looked together.”

“That was-“

“Three months ago,” Jon interrupted. “We know.”

“I love her, it’s serious.”

“Good! You’re a good man, Theon. Now go look after her, she drank far too much,” Jon said, patting him on the shoulder and Theon headed for the stairs.

Sansa was asleep when Theon started to stroke her hair. She was beautiful and he couldn’t believe his luck. He had her love and the respect of the Starks.

“Did the diversion tactic work?” She asked.

“Oh, well the matchmaking worked. Arya and Gendry were kissing pretty heavily when I left them. However, your whole family have known about us for months.”

“Oh good. So it all worked out. Can you hold me now, please? I don’t feel very well,” Theon laughed as he climbed into her bed and held her close to him.

“Happy Christmas, Sansa.”

“Happy Christmas.”


End file.
